Assassin's Apprentice Part 5 - Finished!

[Hanne]

Chapters 21 to 24

[Hanne]

Gedaan! Finito! Fini! Finished!

She packed quite a lot into those last chapters. I'm not sure i'm going to make a lot of sense right now.

So young Fitz found his Skill at his hour of need. It's almost Mistborn-snapping that way. And the image of Galen already standing over Verity almost came straight from the edge-of-your-seat-part of a movie. Doesn't have the exact same effect in a book though, but nonetheless i found the last couple of chapters very interesting.
I also quite liked Fitz 'transmitted' his drowning dreams to Verity. So you Skill without wanting to?

I always had this image of Regal, a little bit like how in a Disney movie you immediately know how is the bad guy. Even if the description said he was dressed in green, he really wasn't: in my head he was skinny, always in black, pale skin and black hair. A little bit like professor Snape actually.

The part i liked best is this public "i'm going to poison you" exchange between Fitz and Rurisk. Laughing, joking and then... BAM.

[David Sven]

The pace really picks up coming into the end. We go from leisurely tip toe through the tulip in the beginning to sitting on the edge of the seat at the end.
I like your comparison to "snapping" in Mistborn.

I forgot to ask earlier if you were surprised by Chade being (view spoiler)[ Lady Thyme? (hide spoiler)]

[Hanne]

David Sven wrote: "I forgot to ask earlier if you were surprised by Chade being (view spoiler)"

Yes I was. And I quite like the trick.
Especially since she even keeps it up while being in Buckkeep? I loved how everyone hated her (and that she's so smelly - never thought of a lady being so smelly!) Definitely a nice touch.

[Hanne]

Finally got around writing a bit of a review: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...


Something else, i actually really enjoyed the mountain country. I liked the concept of the Nomad City, and i really liked the culture of the people there too.
I guess we'll get a lot more of that last one with our new princess. But i hope we'll revisit mountain country itself as well

[Marina]

Just finished the book! (The same day the group starts to read the next one, damn)

Overall, I really enjoyed it, especially how in the end some things turned out to be, like Nosy, for example.
And while the epilogue gave a feeling of happy ending, I liked his dreadful thoughts over the stain of the ink on the paper.

[Hanne]

hi marina! glad you liked it.
yes, i was very impressed with the ending. i'm hoping the next books are as good. so far book 2 is very promising as well.

[Jenny]

And I finished the kick off to. Paybacks a bitch, ain't it Galen (and Cobb for that matter)?? Haha!!

btw I really love the song the Dutch band Within Temptation wrote about this book, even though it's a band my dad listens to instead of me...

Hand Of Sorrow

The child without a name grew up to be the hand
To watch you, to shield you, or kill on demand
The choice he'd made he could not comprehend
His blood a grim secret they had to command

He's torn between his honor and the true love of his life
He prayed for both but was denied

So many dreams were broken and so much was sacrificed
Was it worth the ones we loved and had to leave behind
So many years have past, who are the noble and the wise?
Will all our sins be justified?

The curse of his powers tormented his life
Obeying the crown was a sinister crime
His soul was tortured by love and by pain
He surely would flee, but the oath made him stay

He's torn between his honor and the true love of his life
He prayed for both but was denied

So many dreams were broken and so much was sacrificed
Was it worth the ones we loved and had to leave behind
So many years have past, who are the noble and the wise?
Will all our sins be justified?

Please forgive me for the sorrow
For leaving you in fear
For the dreams we had to silence
That's all there'll ever be
Still I'll be the hand that serves you
Though you'll not see that it is me

So many dreams were broken and so much was sacrificed
Was it worth the ones we loved and had to leave behind
So many years have past, who are the noble and the wise?
Will all our sins be justified?

[Hanne]

and that song sounds so typical Within Temptation too! i never knew they wrote a song about it. (but then, there are many many things i don't know about Within Temptation :)


Pay-back is a bitch.
And yet, it's not bitchy enough in this case!

[Marina]

Indeed, as long as Regal lives, can't be bitchy enough -_-

[Shaad]

Wow loved the ending! I was not sold on this book for the first half of the novel! It just was not getting me anywhere! But I am happy I pushed through because the second half of the book really was excellent! It added such complexity to characters that I never expected! The ending was quite the edge of your seat thrill ride

I loved the poison scene between rurisk and Fitx them just joking! Thats how you make a poison scene light! Also really enjoyed the mountain people there culture is quite intriguing!

I guess thats all! I will be going on with the series! :)

I am to start Royal assassin's!!

[Hanne]

hi shaad - glad you're enjoying it.
the first part of the book is indeed a bit more slow, but i think it does wonders to build the characters and the world.

i agree that the mountain people and their culture are very intriguing. loved those last chapters.

[[deleted user]]

So I finally begin my Elderlings reading so I can catch up for Fool's Assassin. I just finished this one, and here's my review.

I loved it! It's pretty much what I expected worldbuilding/magic-wise, but I never honestly expected to be so swept away. This is one of those overhyped books, so I thought I'd be at best ambivalent because it couldn't live up.

I. Was. Dead. Wrong.

Reading straight on to the next, it's 1 AM my time and no way I'm stopping now :D

[[deleted user]]

Shaad wrote: "Wow loved the ending! I was not sold on this book for the first half of the novel! It just was not getting me anywhere! But I am happy I pushed through because the second half of the book really wa..."

I loved how the ending just coalesced into this complete tangled mess. I love how he became trapped between serving his king and going against his instincts. There was a chapter named Dilemmas; easily my most favorite chapter of the entire book.

[David Sven]

Rabindranauth wrote: "Reading straight on to the next, it's 1 AM my time and no way I'm stopping now :D "

That's the way to do it.

[Hanne]

Rabindranauth, it's a weird feeling isn't it? Like you said in your review "I should have read these sooner."

I had the exact same reaction. I cannot count the number of times these books were in front of me, and i read the back pages and for whatever reason decided not to read them. And when i finally did, i had the exact same reaction.

Definitely not overhyped :)

[[deleted user]]

Alex wrote: "Can you keep it up for all the trilogies?

(So glad you liked it.)"

Not sure. I'm already feeling a little burnt out on Royal Assassin, hah.

[[deleted user]]

Hanne wrote: "Rabindranauth, it's a weird feeling isn't it? Like you said in your review "I should have read these sooner."

I had the exact same reaction. I cannot count the number of times these books were in ..."

I bought most of the trilogies over the last year and have just had them sitting on the shelves. If it weren't for an ARC of Fool's Assassin, they'd still be right there and I'd be reading Malazan right now, lol. No complaints on how it worked out, I think :)

[[deleted user]]

Alex wrote: "Ship of Magic was the book that got me into reading Fantasy heavily.

I still remember my friend handing it to me saying that it was really good, and I looked at the stupid cover and r..."

Love works in mysterious ways, doesn't it, haha.

[Paddy]

Alex, pretty much exactly my experience too! I have all but avoided the Fantasy genre for most of my adult life, with a few exceptions (Robert Silverberg's excellent novel "Lord Valentine's Castle" springs immediately to mind) and yet I hoard books like i'm steeling myself for an edict to suddenly come down from on high that all books are banned!

Long story short, "Ship of Magic" caught my eye whilst browsing a bookstore one summers day in 2016, the cover intrigued, the description even more so. It was a win/win. Instant buy.

It remained upon a heaving shelf jostling for space amongst others begging for my attention, until that fateful day I picked it up. Robin Hobb's style of writing is such a pleasure to read, she defied all of my pre-conceptions, and in my experience, her characters and world-building are second to none. "Ship of Magic" was quite simply, magnificent.

I digress, but it leads me here - to Fitz and the world he inhabits.

After completing "Ship of Magic", I did a little careful digging to see if I was reading things in the right order - seemingly not! So, I bought all of books within the Farseer Trilogy, Liveship Traders and the Tawny Man Trilogy and set out to start at the beginning with "Assassin's Apprentice".

Whilst different in tone in many respects to "Ship of Magic", it was not so different that I had a hard time settling in to Fitz's story. That's one of Hobb's greatest gifts - her writing style is so inviting (enticing?) that it's hard not to feel like you already know your surrounds like returning to an old town one once lived in.

The only issue I had with the book that took a little getting used to was the dawning realisation that Fitz was never going to have it easy. There was never going to be someone to swoop in at the last minute and make his life all cherubs and roses. Towards its end I was craving for him to catch a break. Once I let go of that, it eased my way with finishing the book.

I'm not going to lie, I so desperately wish to return to The Liveship Traders, bit I feel like I really should complete The Farseer Trilogy now before I do so. But it's agonising at times!

I'm thankful for Robin Hobb's work somehow falling in to my life, only two books in and they have already brought me much joy.

Here's to many more.